KENT, Wash. — A suburban Seattle police officer ignored his training and unnecessarily resorted to deadly force when he shot and killed a man outside a supermarket in 2019, prosecutors said as the officer’s murder trial began Thursday.
Auburn Police Officer Jeff Nelson shot Jesse Sarey twice while trying to arrest him for disorderly conduct. Sarey, 26, was the third person Nelson had killed in the line of duty in the past eight years.
Nelson’s attorney, Emma Scanlan, told jurors during her opening statement that he believed — wrongly — that Sarey had taken a pocket knife from the officer’s pocket. Instead, the knife had fallen to the ground and was picked up by a witness.
Every day for the past five years, Nelson wishes he knew the knife wasn’t in play when he wrestled Sarey: “If he had, we wouldn’t be here,” she said, according to The Seattle Times.
The case is the second to go to trial since Washington voters in 2018 made it easier to charge police by removing a standard that required prosecutors to prove they acted with malice; now prosecutors must prove the force was unreasonable or unnecessary. In December, jurors acquitted three Tacoma police officers in the 2020 death of Manuel Ellis.
Sarey, who was homeless and struggling with his mental health and substance use, reportedly threw things at cars and caused a disturbance but did not threaten anyone on May 31, 2019, when Nelson responded.
King County Special Prosecutor Angelo Calfo told the jury that Nelson ignored his training, which required him to use time, distance and cover, key rules for de-escalation and officer safety.
Instead of waiting for backup, Nelson picked up Sarey from where he had been sitting on the sidewalk and drank from discarded cups; Instead of keeping his distance and taking cover, he approached Sarey and stood over him, Calfo said.
When Sarey did not comply with Nelson’s orders to put his hands behind his back, Nelson grabbed him and began wrestling and hitting him. Nelson pushed him against a cooler, pulled out his gun and shot him in the stomach, Calfo said.
“Not to excuse Mr. Sarey’s behavior; he should have obeyed,” Calfo said. “But a police officer must use his training to avoid having to use force. That’s not what happened.”
Sarey sank to the ground and leaned back. Nelson then pulled a jammed round from his gun, glanced at a nearby witness, turned back to Sarey and shot him again — this time in the forehead, according to video of the encounter.
Like the first, Calfo said, the second shot was unwarranted: “He could have done a million other things than shoot this guy in the head.”
Nelson’s attorney told the jury he will testify at trial. He has been waiting five years to say what exactly happened that day, Scanlan said, including the feeling that Sarey had reached for his gun during the struggle.
Nelson said in a written statement after the shooting that he believed Sarey had a knife and posed a threat before the first shot — and that Sarey was “crouched on his knees … ready to lunge forward” before the officer fired again. Nelson has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and first-degree assault.
Nelson, an Iraq war veteran, joined the department in 2008.
The city of Auburn paid Sarey’s family $4 million to settle a civil rights claim and has paid nearly $2 million more to settle other lawsuits over Nelson’s actions as a police officer.
The trial, before King County Superior Court Judge Nicole Gaines Phelps at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, is expected to last several weeks. Gaines has ruled that jurors will not hear evidence about Nelson’s prior use of deadly force.
In one of those earlier cases, the city of Auburn agreed to pay $1.25 million to the family of another man Nelson killed, Isaiah Obet. Obet had reportedly broken into homes and attempted a carjacking with a knife when Nelson confronted him in 2017.
Nelson released his police dog, which bit Obet, and then shot the man in the torso. Obet, on the ground and still fighting the police dog, tried to get back up, and Nelson shot him again in the head, police said. The department praised Nelson’s actions as protecting the community.
In another incident, Nelson shot and killed Brian Scaman, a Vietnam veteran with mental problems and a history of crimes, in 2011 after pulling over Scaman for a blown headlight. Scaman got out of his car with a knife and refused to drop it; Nelson shot him in the head. A judicial jury cleared Nelson of any wrongdoing.
